


Fairy Tales

by whatswithmegan



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Fairy Tales, Gen, Jim's daughter, mention of murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 09:18:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatswithmegan/pseuds/whatswithmegan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim Moriarty was a single dad. Was. His daughter's death made him snap, thus his love of fairy tales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fairy Tales

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous request; yes I used Jim's famous line, no hate

It didn't matter which story he read, or which version, and it didn't matter the language. The ending was always the same. _“And they all lived happily ever after”_. But that wasn't how it was in real life, now, was it? Nothing ever ends happily. Hell, even those fairy stories didn't end that way – though they claimed to. One person always ended up left behind, in the dust... or dead.

She loved every story he read to her though. She loved princesses and knights and dragons and loved stories and the over dramatized aspect of it all. Jim remembered the nights that he would stay up with his daughter, reading story after story, watching as her eyes lit up when the hero beat out the villain. It was her love of fairy tales that made Jim's heart beat each day. 

_But nothing ever ends happily ever after._

She was only 6 and a half years old. And Jim remembered it clearly.

_“Daddy, daddy!” she exclaimed, giggling as she ran into his arms after school. Jim smiled at her and lifted her into the air, spinning her around and giving her a kiss on the cheek. She laughed and squirmed out of his reach, pulling him along the pavement. “I want to show you what we did in school today!” she explained, waving around a stack of papers in her hand._

_“Oh?” Jim cooed, following along with his enthusiastic daughter. She grinned widely, her black curls bouncing as she rushed along._

_“Yes! Come on, I want you to read it!” By the time they arrived back at their flat, the little girl was nearly out of breath, and flopped down on the couch, toeing off her silver shoes as she curled her legs underneath her. “I wrote a fairy tale for class, daddy, will you read it to me?”_

_Jim smiled, “Of course... I'd be honoured.” he gingerly took the stack of papers from her, sat down beside her, and began to read her story. It was a heartfelt tale of a brave princess – who looked and acted exactly as his daughter did – and her big adventure across her homeland. Though there wasn't much detail in the actual adventure – something about a dragon - there was quite a bit to be said about the villain – who looked and acted exactly as Jim did. Jim didn't know how to feel about this, but for the next few days after she showed him the story, he would repeat the lines of his character, and chase the 'princess' around their flat before collapsing on the ground in a fit of laughter._

It was exactly one week later that she was murdered.

He had waited for nearly an hour outside of her school before the headmaster came outside, a saddened look on his face, “Mr. Moriarty...”

“Where is my daughter?” Jim snapped, advancing at the man, “Where is she?” he demanded, his voice breaking.

“We had tried to contact you, but... she didn't come back to class after lunch.” the man frowned at Jim, “I'm so sorry, we assumed -”

“You idiot!” Jim screamed, shoving the man before dialing his right hand man, Sebastian Moran. He needed to find his daughter before anyone else did. But Sebastian was no help. He was working a job on the opposite end of London and hadn't been keeping tabs on the girl that day. Jim felt his heart drop to his stomach. In his line of work, there were a series of people who would do anything to get back at Jim for what he's done to them. It was the reason why he was a single father... why his daughter had grown up without knowing her mother. And now he was terrified he might have just lost her as well.

He searched the streets for hours, calling out her name until his voice ran out, only croaking out what sounded like her name. It was 10 at night when Sebastian came and found him sobbing with his head in his hands, sitting on a desolate park bench.

“Boss... It's late. You should get home.” the sniper muttered, helping Jim to stand up.

“I – I can't go home without her... I have to find her...” he whispered, bloodshot eyes searching the streets and alleyways.

“Sir, please.” Sebastian begged, “Your daughter... she...” there was a tense pause as Jim turned to look at Sebastian, his face telling him everything.

“Oh... god...” he whimpered, holding onto Sebastian's upper arm to keep himself standing. “S-she's dead... she's dead, isn't she?”

Sebastian said nothing, only nodding his head solemnly before helping Jim walk back to his flat. He never slept, he rarely ate. Sebastian had to come by once a day to make cure the consulting criminal was still alive. He was in a dark depression for months, until one day when he saw a man with the same curly dark hair as his daughter. _Sherlock Holmes._ Jim snapped back to reality to track the man down, vowing to destroy him, his persona slipping further and further into the villainous character his daughter had made for him. He was no longer a father, no longer a caring man – nothing was left of him but a shell of a man. His heart had filled with the same inky blackness so common with the villains in fairy tales.

Because as he had explained long ago to his dear, sweet daughter, “Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned villain.”


End file.
